


Chyfnewid

by Inwitari_Turelie



Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, Thor (2011), Torchwood
Genre: Character Death Fix, Crossover, F/M, Goodish!Loki, Jack is too messed up to judge, M/M, blatant fix fic, forcing two universes together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-06-02
Updated: 2012-07-30
Packaged: 2017-11-06 16:14:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/420828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inwitari_Turelie/pseuds/Inwitari_Turelie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki falls through time as well as space and lands in Cardiff in 2008. Understandably this changes the timeline quite a bit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Hub

It begins at a quiet day at Torchwood 3 in 2008. Of course it is well known that any particularly quiet day at Torchwood 3 has a tendency to become a full-on disaster. 

Tosh is still trying to work out why none of them have any memories of the last 48 hours. Jack says, in that annoying way he has of dispensing knowledge none of the rest of them has any chance of knowing, that there are quite a few alien species out there with the ability to manipulate memories. Tosh can’t quite stop the smile that comes to her face when Owen points out that actually Jack, that isn’t really that reassuring. 

Gwen is still at home with Rhys, trying to sort out that apparently yesterday she couldn’t remember him, and how the other woman manages a relationship with someone outside Torchwood, someone who doesn’t know what it’s like Tosh doesn’t know. She isn’t really in a position to gloat though. Her own relationships are a mess and maybe that’s because they’re too Torchwood. There’s Mary, the alien who used her to get access to Torchwood, and to this day Tosh isn’t quite sure how much of her own attraction to her was real. Then there’s Tommy, sweet brave Tommy, who was out of his time and had to leave her to save the world. Then there’s Owen. 

Tosh is not exactly sure where she stands with Owen. She’s always been attracted to him and she can finally say they’re friends and he’s been really sweet about Tommy actually. She guesses that it’s partially because it reminds him of his situation with Diane a year ago but she likes to think it’s more than that.

Of course, if they were sensible none of them would have relationships but really, sensible isn't exactly a word you associate with Torchwood 3. Neither really is stable to be honest. Tosh is sure there's something going on between Jack and Ianto. Something being more Jack's usual flirting, which he does to everyone and more even than his high level emotional flirting he only does with some people. Ianto and Gwen come to mind. 

Reminding herself to get back on track Tosh tries to access the security footage for the last two days. The problem is it isn’t there. Perhaps the greater problem is that Tosh thinks that looking at it she’d almost conclude she deleted it. So, apparently they’re missing 48 hours from their memories and there’s no evidence of what they’ve done. Ianto claims there isn’t anything obvious missing from any of the vaults but she’s not sure that really reassures her.

Tosh is so absorbed that she likes to think it she can be excused for not being the very first to notice the alert of increased rift activity, with Ianto instead taking that particular honour 

It seems that whatever else they’d lost memories of in those 48 hours one of them had been a forecast of rift activity.  
She quickly brings up the new data on her computer.

“It looks like something’s coming through, I can’t get a reading on the size, it keeps fluctuating but I think I can triangulate the position”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter picks up immediately after the events of Season 2 Episode 5 Adam.


	2. Waking

He let’s go. Whatever he says later at that that precise point he meant for his life to end. Life’s funny like that though and it doesn’t really want to leave. He realises this just as he can no longer see his not-brother and not-father’s faces.  
Loki falls.

 

Loki falls through Yggdrasil

 

Loki falls past stars and nebulae

 

Loki falls through darkness and death

 

Loki falls past many realms unknown 

 

Loki falls through time and space

 

Eventually Loki stops. He doesn’t remember that part.   
When he regains consciousness he’s on some sort of table. He’s also damp and in pain. There is a bright light above him and he blinks to clear his eyes

“I’m telling you Jack, he’s not human. You saw the force he hit the water with, they’re no way he should have could again with a few broken bones”

Human. This is Midgard then. 

“Looks like more than a few to me Owen” 

“Yeah, but point is, that’s it. No head injury or anything”

Seidr can really be very useful Loki muses. His seems to have quite the trick of protecting him even when he isn’t conscious.

“Doesn’t mean he’s not human though, I mean look at Jack, he’s human, mostly and we know what he survives”

“My man Ianto, has a point. You’re doing tests on the blood, right?”

Loki is not sure he’s happy with that idea. He must have shifted in his discomfort because the next voice is closer and addresses him directly.

“Hi, you’re awake” 

Well clearly. Truly these mortals are exceptionally intelligent. He turns towards this new female voice. The woman is nearly as pale as him, with similar dark hair and greenish eyes. He quickly mentally checks he hadn’t been around Midgard anytime near when she might have been conceived. This is made slightly more complicated by the fact he isn’t really very good at judging mortal ages but as far as he knows he hasn’t any half-human children running around. 

“I’m Gwen, Gwen Cooper. We found you in floating in the bay outside. We’ve fixed you out best as we can but I’m afraid you’ve broken quite a few bones so I wouldn’t try and move too much yet. I’ll get Owen, he’s our doctor see”

If the doctor was the one he heard to begin with, Loki isn’t sure he wants to meet him yet. This girl seems far more likely to be sympathetic and sympathy he can work with. 

“Where am I?” his voice feels hoarse but he doesn’t know it it’s from injury or simply lack of use.

“Well, at the moment, you’re in the medical section of the Hub where I work, but I’m going guess from the clothes you're not from around here, so I should probably say you’re in Cardiff. That’s the city we’re in. It’s in Wales. Earth, if that helps”

Loki has never heard of Wales but he deems this unimportant right now. A more pressing issue is on his mind. Just how long had he fell for? At the time it had felt both infinite and no time at all.

“When is it?” 

“28th May 2008”

Immediately after she says it, Loki realises how unhelpful that actually is. Any date from a Midgardian calendar is going to mean nothing to him after all. He’s been to Midgard before, it’s true but he’s never paid it that much attention and while he has an idea of the length of their time measurements he doesn’t even know when Thor’s banishment was in their dating system.

“That dosen’t means much to you, does it?” She notes

Apparently his lack of comprehension shows on his face. Falling off the Bifrost, through space and hitting the some body of water seems to have knocked out off of his usual masks. This is unacceptable. 

His thoughts are interrupted by the sound of nearing footsteps before a confident voice pronounces, “So, Sleeping Beauty’s awake” 

This, he thinks is the one they call “Jack”. Loki thinks he is the leader, he has something of the same confidence that his brother, no, not-his-brother, Thor had. The others orbiting him as if he is a sun. There is rather a lot of variation between how these mortals speak but he thinks this man sounds more like those from where Thor fell than these others do.

“Captain Jack Harkness”

The man gives a blinding smile and extends his hand. Perhaps Loki was wrong and it is Fandral this man more truly resembles. He shifts himself more upright, supressing the wince of pain. 

“Much, as I’d truly love to take your hand I think perhaps movement is an ill-advised measure for me to take at this point in time.”

“I’ll forgive you, if you give me your name. I gave you mine, you give me yours, seems like a fair trade”

“Is that your name though, Captain, truly?”

The others, the girl Gwen and the three others who have followed the Captain down look at him oddly. Clearly, they are unaware, this not-quite-true name the man has given is truly what they know him by.

“It’s what they call me”

“Then, you can call me Loki”

A truth, that sounds like a lie. How fitting.

“So, Loki, mind telling us where you come from?”

“Perhaps, I do not know myself”

“Perhaps, personally, I’d be inclined to believe on the knowing how, not so much on the where. Or when. Now, you see, I would say time-travel, but despite I’m pretty sure that’s not how the English sounded when they dressed like that, or, that they ever dressed like that. So, I’m going to say future or Alien.”

The man tosses these phrases around with a terrifying nonchalance. These Midgardian mortals should not speak so easily of such things. There are indeed various types of beings who have varying amounts of control of time but none of them would exercise their power for the whims of these Midgardians.

Unless, he has indeed fallen for a very long time even as the Æsir count and this is far in the future. That would explain this knowledge of other peoples of the nine-realms.

“I fell.”

“Yeah, we picked up on that.” Their doctor, this Owen cuts in. Jack glares at him.

“From where I am not at liberty to say for it is not my secret” it is that of the Æesir and Loki is Jötunn “I can assure you though, that while they have knowledge of this realm, they have little interest in it and bear it no ill will. At least when I left. I can’t really tell you how long I fell for. Sorry.”

Their Captain looks at him and Loki has an uncomfortable feeling that he can hear the things Loki hasn’t said.

“So, should we expect some army coming after you?”

“No. There is no one looking for me” 

After all his so-called family thinks he is dead, no doubt, and must be glad of it, they no longer need pretend they care for a Jötunn runt. It is true Odin may yet have Heimdall watch for Loki, out of security concerns but the Bifrost is still broken and few enough of Æesir know the other ways of walking between the realms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The date here is not a canonical date. From what I've been able to glean of the dating of Torchwood episodes it is in the right year & should around the right time but the actual date is of my own creation.   
> I'm using this timeline here & it's justifications as my basis http://www.newsarama.com/tv/definitive-doctor-who-timeline-2-110504.html


	3. Seeing Double

Golden Heimdall, the Brightest of the Residents of Asgard, Gatekeeper of the Bifrost, Renowned Defender of Asgard, Son of Nine Mothers is said to see All. Some even say he has foreknowledge. 

This is not actually quite the truth.  In fact little of the above is. Gatekeeper and Defender he may be but even his brightness is stained of history often dark and he had Ten Mothers not Nine. Of course people don't like to mention the once existent Tenth Realm these days. At least partially because they don't remember it. Of course few remember who Heimdall's Mother's are and why exactly he came to be. On Asgard they would call it a miracle of seidr and good breeding, On Midgard genetic manipulation, On Alfheim an exquisite twining of songs, On Gallifrey some an abomination. Of course, only Heimdall can remember why all rulers called his creation necessary.  He doesn't have foreknowledge either. Of course when you see as much as Heimdall does simultaneously as long as Heimdall one recognises enough patterns and clues that predictions can often be made accurately enough one could fake foreknowledge. It is a pity Heimdall has his Honour and Duty and is not a betting man for he could easily accumulate more gold should he wish.  

Most pertinently, though his eyesight and hearing may be keen Heimdall does not always see All. Not least due to the strain of concentrating on All. He could. Probably. It is rarely necessary though. Thus there are always cracks and shadows which one can use to avoid the Gatekeeper's attention. However usually when Heimdall makes an effort to look for something he can see it.  

This is not the case with the Second Prince of Asgard Loki, Odinson by adoption, Laufeyson by birth.  He had hardly been out of boyhood when he first disappeared from Heimdall's sight. It took it a bit longer to perfect it so that Heimdall could not find him.  Heimdall did not tell Odin. That Heimdall could not see Loki is not why the he is dangerous to Asgard. 

Never before has Heimdall seen Loki twice before. 

He does not mean the boy's illusionary copies, clone apparitions, eidolons. Nor Loki and another shape-shifted to be him. 

Heimdall sees Loki, the real, actual, Loki occupying two parts of the universe at once.

Yet, the Loki in Asgard is the one he knows, the one landed on Midgard, well, it is interesting he didn't see his fall and to have landed where there is a rift in Yggdrasil. 

Clearly Heimdall has not seen the boy fall _yet_.

Heimdall does not tell Odin what he sees.

Whether Loki's fall comes at Thor annouced coronation, as is likely, or later it matters not. It has happened. It will happen. 

He does watch the trickster more carefully afterwards though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We weren't supposed to see Asgard. Not in this story. But somehow we did. It just happened :/


End file.
